Financial planning can be described as a system that enables you to identify and reach your money-based goals by making wise lifetime decisions about how you make money, how you invest it, and how you spend it. This differs from estate planning, which is concerned with how you transfer your wealth

at death

for the greatest advantage to your heirs (and at the least cost to you while you are still living!)

Elsewhere in this module we deal with the important topic of creating your wealth-building plan, which provides a step-by-step process for identifying and reaching your goals. Here, we focus on the major areas that you'll have to consider when you start to actually construct your plan: